But with secret police filming the crowds to ensure people were displaying enough emotion, it was hard to tell how spontaneous the tears really were.

Jong-il’s son and “great successor” Kim Jong-un walked alongside the coffin, which was draped in a red flag and resting on a plinth of white chrysanthemums – one hand resting on the hearse, the other raised in salute.

The astonishing scenes in the showpiece capital Pyongyang marked the start of two days of ceremonies for the 69-year-old tyrant who was said to have died from “overwork”, apparently suffering a massive heart attack on his luxury private train on December 17.

But they also showed how the personality cult surrounding the communist leader eclipsed the suffering and starvation of his repressed people.

Neighbouring countries and the wider world looked on anxiously for clues to the membership of Kim Jong-un’s inner circle, as the 20-something James Bond fan prepares to take command of a 1.2 million-strong army and six nuclear warheads.

A eulogy by the Workers’ Party said that under Jong-il North Korea had been “dignified as a country” and his son, the Supreme Leader and Son of Heaven, would take “warm care” of the people.

The three-hour procession, which mirrored that of Jong-il’s father Kim Il-sung in 1994, began four hours late due to heavy snow. State TV filled the time showing historical footage of Jong-il, documentaries extolling his achievements and images of the long-range rocket launch in 2009 that intensified US sanctions against the country.

The weather also prompted one army officer to gush: “The snow is endlessly falling like tears. As we are separated from the General by death, the people, mountains, rivers and sky are shedding tears of blood.”

The funeral procession was led by a black limo carrying a huge portrait of a smiling, benign-looking Jong-il and another bearing a massive wreath.

Kim Jong-un walked bareheaded beside the hearse but Jong-il’s two other sons, Kim Jong-nam and Kim Jong-chol, were nowhere to be seen.

Instead the Sagacious Leader was flanked by senior military officers and members of the political elite as the cortege passed grandiose monuments like the Arc de Triomphe – a larger copy of the Parisian original – and Kim Il-sung Square, a massive plaza paved with the rubble of bombed Korean War ruins.

At Jong-un’s side throughout was his uncle, Jang Sung-Taek, chairman of the powerful National Defence Commission and the man expected to act as regent – guiding the new leader and ensuring his father’s military priorities are upheld.

State TV commentators vied to be heard over the wailing, foot-stamping mourners – with one sobbing: “General, can you hear this? The sound of the suffering of the patriotic martyrs?”

A woman soldier pulled at her uniform and cried: “You gave us these new uniforms and you will be back to see us wearing it! General, you are not gone, you cannot leave us!” The crowds waited for hours in freezing temperatures. Army tents were set up to deal with people collapsing in grief or suffering from cold.

Most were wealthier residents of Pyongyang. Many genuinely grieve for their late leader, under whom they prospered. That is not the case for the country-dwelling relatives of some two million North Koreans who have died from famine while Jong-il and his father amassed their fortunes.

There were bizarre scenes at a shopping mall in Pyongyang where the last photo of the Dear Leader was said to have been taken. Jong-il was snapped travelling down an escalator – which is now being treated as a shrine with hundreds of sobbing people kneeling beside it and stroking the hand rails.

The funeral procession eventually returned to Kumsusan Memorial Palace, where it began and ended with a 21-gun salute. Kim saluted as goose-stepping soldiers marched by carrying flags and rifles.

A funeral service was held behind closed doors and Russian experts are expected to embalm Jong-il’s body before it goes on public display beside his father.

Pyongyang’s foreign diplomats were invited to attend the procession, though few other outsiders appeared to be allowed into the country for the funeral. Today another memorial service will be held at the palace and the nation will observe a three-minute silence. All trains, ships and cars are then required to blow whistles, honk horns and sound sirens.

After that Jong-un is expected to cement his power by formally assuming command of the military, and becoming general secretary of the Workers’ Party and chairman of the party’s Central Military Commission.

But his age and inexperience leave questions about his long-term prospects. Whereas his father was groomed for power for 20 years before taking over, the younger Kim has had only two years to prepare. And some observers believe his propaganda chiefs will have to work overtime to counter his perception as “a spoiled child of privilege”.

And they may already have made a promising start. One expert said: “Having Kim Jong-un trudge mournfully next to the hearse in terrible weather was a very clever move.”

And analysts say tomorrow’s memorial service will mark another step in the transition of power.

Kim Yeon-su, an expert on North Korean affairs at the state-run Korea National Defence University in South Korea, said: “The message will be clear: Kim Jong-un now leads the country and there is no alternative.”

In Britain we know how public events can trigger strong feelings. Tragedies like the death of Princess Diana can sweep away normal restraint, for a while. Strangers leave flowers, weep; the nation grieves.

Yet most people are not utterly distraught. Some don’t care at all. They are free to say so, however much others disapprove. Do North Koreans have that choice?

In truth we don’t know nearly enough about North Korea. Details of daily existence are hard to come by and harder to trust.

The state’s grip on its people and media is so strong, that dragging facts out of Pyongyang is impossible.

So how are we to make sense of apparently inconsolable North Koreans? Brainwashing, terror-driven propaganda, or genuine ­ ­feelings, expressed in a culture very different from ours?

One clue is how North Korean citizens behave when they do have a choice. If the state had perfected brainwashing, none of its people would ever attempt to leave. Yet leave they do.

Hundreds of thousands are thought to be living in China and Russia. Few defectors speak about their old lives. Those who do paint an Orwellian picture of prison camps, state surveillance and severe punishment.

The state controls their media, their activities, what they can and cannot say. Knowledge of the outside world is restricted and distorted. The government’s spies make the citizens feel under constant threat.

Our brains are always changing, using new information to build models of reality. Control that ­information, and you can change what a person thinks is real.

Control behaviour, and you take away the energy to rebel. North Korea has an entire state apparatus for systematic psychological abuse.

Keeping track of the difference between the state’s view of reality and how things actually are must be exhausting.

Some North Koreans will be faking their public behaviour, for survival. That others react hysterically to their leader’s death is unsurprising.

No technology is needed to force them into it. Just skilled techniques for exploiting the brain’s inbuilt weaknesses.